48—18 Phil's POV
by CraftyNotepad
Summary: Thanks to okaie for writing this tale. She has a different take on how our story should end.
1. She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not

**Readers thus far hailing from USA and Sinapore!**

Disclaimer: Whoever said, "Tis better to have loved and lost ..." never REALLY loved at all. Oh, and this PotF thing? Whatever. I don't own it.

48/18: Phil's Point of View

or

Chapter Eight -- _What Really Happened ..._

_"She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not"_

_;0D_

_Thanks to okaie for writing this tale._  
She has a different take on how our story should end.

_;0)_

Phil awoke from his daydreaming.

Yeah, that's what should have happened. He did get parts of it right; her mind was already made up and she had decided on their future without his input. She confused him with her compassion:

_"Phil, you're the perfect man."_

"Phil, I still love you, just not like I did before."

**"Phil, I have to do what's best for me."**

"Phil, I'm sorry."

He gave her his heart, never even once considering that she'd actually go and break it once it was hers. He still loved her so much it astonished him, how absolute his desire to make her happy. He just couldn't fathom how she could tell him "yes" so many times, and how much she loved him, and also tell him that he wasn't right for her. Despite her claims that she had been feeling this way for months, there had been enthusiasm and longing just three weeks ago when she told him of a special outing she was arranging for the two of them to be together -- this change in her heart had happened suddenly, but what was it's root? It was killing him. How could she love him so intensely month after month, making him a part of her, then cut him out of her heart and callously discard him, probably for another. He was her best friend, shared with her all of his secrets, gave her his heart and everything he had and would ever had, and had heard her words as she accepted his pledge time after time., calling him "Hubby" and "Phil-Phil." In an instant, she redefined herself as cruel, distant, and cold. It was like she died when she killed their being a couple; he couldn't recognize her anymore, or himself.

Phil missed Keely. Not her hair, or the way she filled out her pop-star jeans; he missed her. Bubbly, full of life, optimistic one moment and fretting over babies with rickets in India the next, he missed most of all the way she smiled and the feeling she have him by letting him be the on who give those smiles birth. The Keely who thought about other people before herself, who calculated which words wouldn't hurt before she spoke. They were a couple, a team, practically man and wife; he thought about how so many times she had signed her love letters as "Love, Keely _Diffy_." Then all of a sudden, this? She told him that they didn't feel right anymore? She had always felt right to him; together, they felt right for him, all that was true and important and right in his world.

She was the only person he had done everything for,

offered his heart to and had it accepted,

waited for,

journeyed back to,

and ...

... ‹3 LOVED ‹3!

She had made her mind up. She could change it, sure, but she probably wouldn't. He knew this and so did she. Keely told him that she still loved him, would always love him, but she couldn't go on like this. A decision to stop being in love? There was the tension in her voice of someone who had weighed her situation and finding him wanting, had decided to take the path of her calculations, not her heart. He kept trying to understand what she wasn't telling him, her private truth. Hadn't she made him promise "no more secrets?" "One hundred percent honesty?" What had he done wrong? He'd been honest with her about everything, been up front about his true age, instead of using the New Ager. Was it really only about how she felt being around someone looking old enough to be her father, even if he was basically a teenager inside, just waiting to pick up on living life with her? She was never like that when they were alone together or even talking on the phone. Nevertheless, she had made her decision.

She

Had

Decided ...

.

... alone.

.

There was something to that. Nothing he had done or said mattered, except to prolong her deciding to break up. This was entirely her decision.

Phil had watched his parents deal with arguments and adversity no matter what the century. No matter if there was a winner or compromiser, or even if they both lost, they did it together as one. Making decisions together, be they big or small -- and this was colossal -- was part of being a couple. Keely hadn't acted this way. She said it herself, she had decided, no matter how hard a decision it was to make, to do what she thought was best for her. This was significant. Keely had decided that he was unfit to be the man to make her happy, unworthy to share their life together, and unsatisfactory as the father of their children ... he had truly been looking forward to one day helping raise their babies, watching them grow, being a father -- he had believed her when she told him he'd make a great father. He believed all the things she ever told him, especially three:

**First postulation:** They were in love.

**Second postulate:** They were a couple.

**Third postulate:** They were happy.

"Were" seems appropriate in all cases, but were any of these true? Phil pulled out his Giggle, "Giggle On," and scanned "Phil Diffy & Keely Teslow" during the ordinary, day to day routines that they had during "2005." Maybe his memories were all rose-colored? Displayed by his Giggle on the helmet's window shade screen were the tons of recording gathered by his never-far-out-of-reach Wizrd. Happy sighs escaped the reviewing Phil, confirming that they were indeed happy.

Third postulation: They were happy. √

He continued his search, ordering his Giggle to draw its attention to 2006. Fewer files, since his family left early in the year, but this was the year that they drew even closer. In 2006, his family seemed to have finally planted roots in the 21st Century, and Keely and he had at last admitted to themselves their "coupleness." This seemed easy to decided:

Second postulation: They were a couple. √√

So, on to the first, biggest question: were they in love? Gee, he had thought so. They even used to tease each other over who loved whom more.

The giggle was too smart for it's own good. Since he hadn't specified a year, it pulled up all the occurrences it had stored regarding "love" and the two of them. Little gifts, late night AIMing and emails, phone calls just because, quotes peppered the screen nearly blocking out images of her birthday picnic in the park, supporting each other in times of trouble, dancing in the garage, their first kiss, and all the kissing and more they had done since he had returned. Phil was a cuddler and Keely loved him for being so romantic. This seemed like a sure fire stir-banger:

First postulation: They were in love. √√√ X ∞

Therefore, they were in couple in love -- so why weren't they one now? This is what Phil didn't get. To him, it didn't add up. Keely had told him that he didn't get it. What to do, what to do, how to solve?

When an answer doesn't make sense, you go back and see if you made a stupid ass-sumption ...


	2. Three Little Words

Disclaimer:

Star light, star bright,

first star I see tonight,

I wish I may, I wish I might,

own the whole of Phil of the Future,

or even a bite.

**48/18: Phil's Point of View**

or

**Chapter Nine -- ****_What Really Happened ..._**

_;0D_

_Thanks to okaie for writing this chapter. It's fun playing editor!_  
She has a different take on how our story should end.

_;0)_

**Were they REALLY happy?** Again, a search, and again, the same answer: YES. No doubt about it. They were happy together. Okay, he'd keep that one.

**Were they REALLY a couple?** They started out as classmates, quickly becoming friends, then confidants, best friends, quietly falling in love, and then becoming a couple. A couple torn apart by time, for sure, a little for her, a lot for him, but she was having a lot more problems with it than he was. Since he'd come back, things had been different: not going out with friends, staying inside when they wanted to be together. Her ducking down in the car if she thought she saw someone who would recognize her -- she had never done that before. They still made plans together for their future, both short-term and long; that's the thing that only couples do! Taking on the future together, the good and the bad. Couples talk problems out and solve them together, or get help doing so, but they do it together.

But her decision to end the two of them? THAT she had made without him. Keely had decided for the both of them that she knew what was the right thing to do for her, and like his parents did forcing him back to the future, she handed down her proclamation and there was nothing he could do or say to change her mind. Like a mother, she told him that this was the best for him, too; he knew she wasn't doing him any favors. She wasn't having them both make the decision as a couple of what would be good for both of them and their shared identity as the Pheely couple. No, she said it herself, she had made the decision on what was best for her and go her own way. _(Damn High School Musical 2 -- I always knew that series was evil.)_

**Second postulation: They were a couple. Couples don't treat each other that way. No, whether it was Keely's decision or whether they had never truly been a couple, they simply weren't.**

**Were they REALLY in love?** If -- no ... _since _they weren't a couple, they weren't in love. How could they be? Keely had made the decision about what was best for herself, not for them. Love is about living unselfish for another, putting their needs and comforts ahead of your own. Always thinking about the other person, Keely has felt bad about how it would make Phil feel, but empathy is not the same as love. Love is beyond tolerance, beyond sympathy, love is about devoting your point of view of what your purpose in life is to whatever makes those whom you love "happier." The quote his mother had written on her bathroom mirror suddenly came back to him:

**"No success in life can compensate for failure in the home."**

Maybe not the perfect example, but he recognized the sentiment of loved ones coming first, not oneself, and Keely made it clear that she was calling this break up for herself, about what she had judged was best for Keely.

So, if they weren't a couple, they weren't in love, so what had Keely been feeling all this time? She wasn't in hight school anymore, this was real life, not dress rehersal for one. Phil? Now, he knew with confidence he was in love with her and all her outlooks, mannerisms, and emotions, but he couldn't have done to her what she had done to them, especially without doing everything possible to find a solution. He looked over his three proposals once more:

**First postulation: They were in love.**

**Second postulation: They were a couple.**

**Third postulation: They were happy.**

Number one is out.  
Same for number two.

That just leaves Three.

Using the Giggle once more was unnecessary. Her laughter was burned in his brain, her smile on his soul. She was happy when they were together, and he was happy when she was, but now Keely was declaring that they couldn't be together anymore. Despite her latest claims of her not being happy or comfortable with him, the Giggle had reminded him with memory after memory of the two of them being obscenely happy when they were together. He'd always knew that she was strong enough to handle the difference in their ages because she told him how much she loved him, loved the two of them together. He had just made a false assumption, because it wasn't love; it was happiness. Easy enough to get the two confused, he guessed. People say they love their car, a favorite book, even a cupcake, but are they really in love with them, or do they get a feeling of happiness about them and mistake it for love? Keely never intentionally tried to hurt him, to deceive him; she simply didn't know the difference between feeling happy, and being in love.

The Giggle hummed. Had he said something out loud? The screen filled with a love note from the woman he loved more than life:

.

_**I'm happy.**_

_**.**_

_**Really happy your next to me, want to take care of me.**_

_**Enjoy having me next to you.**_

_**The little hearts and kisses on your arm, don't they proclaim your mine?**_

_**Yes, it's too late to pull out without getting hurt so I'm not pulling out.**_

_**I don't want to pull out, I just feel safe with you there.**_

_**You can play with me while I sleep, I like it.**_

_**You can see it in my subconscious smile, can't you?**_

_**.**_

_**I love you. ‹3**_

And he believed her every word.

Only one hiccup: Keely had never loved him.


End file.
